Igeho Rising Star 2025: five finalists announced

The results are in: The Swiss food and hospitality ecosystem has made its selection of the five start-ups for the final of the Igeho Rising Star Award 2025. Catchfree, Circunis, Foodflows, GoNina, and Yumame Foods are the five innovators selected to showcase their innovations in the final on 18 November in Basel.

The Igeho Rising Star Award 2025 final will take place on 18 November at 4.15 pm on the Igeho 2025 stage. The five finalists will be able to present their innovations to the audience and then answer questions from the jury. Catering and food expert Andrin Willi will host the final.

From 7 April to 30 May, the Swiss hospitality ecosystem could select their favourite innovative solutions and products as part of the public voting process. The five finalists showcase a diverse array of sustainable food innovations: 

• Catchfree develops plant-based seafood alternatives
• Circunis has launched a digital marketplace for surplus food
• Foodflows streamlines farm-to-table purchasing
• GoNina uses AI-driven forecasting for catering businesses
• Yumame Foods creates fungi-based food products.

As Switzerland’s leading international hospitality industry platform, Igeho is committed to fostering innovation. With the 2025 Igeho Rising Star Award, it provides emerging companies in the hospitality sector with a valuable opportunity to showcase their businesses, raise awareness of their innovations, and connect with industry professionals.

In collaboration with Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley, Igeho aims to use this award to drive innovation by offering startups a platform and facilitating networking opportunities.

The jury

This year, the jury for the award will once again consist of experts from the Swiss food industry:

• Pascal Bieri, Co-Founder at Planted
• Dr Claus-Heinrich Daub, Professor of Sustainable Business Management at FHNW
• Marina Helm Romaneschi, Marketing & Innovation Strategy at Swiss Food Research
• Christine Schäfer, Senior Researcher at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute
• Rebecca Clopath, an Alpine natural chef
• Christian Gerber, Head of Innovation Management at ZFV.

All 15 start-ups that participated in the public voting for the Rising Star Award will have the opportunity to showcase their innovations to the Swiss hospitality audience over two days at Igeho 2025 in Basel. In addition to the five finalists, the following start-ups will also be exhibiting at the trade fair: Actidot, FoodFor, Hexafed, LOVYÜ, Niatsu, Sanvitafood, Saya Suka, SwissMiso, and TrueFoods.

Igeho: International platform for the hotel, catering, take-away and care sectors

Igeho is the most important international industry platform for the hotel, catering, take-away and care sectors in Switzerland. As a live marketing platform it offers the hospitality branch a comprehensive market overview, interesting networking opportunities and new impulses around the topic of hospitality. The wide range of products and services will be complemented by an exciting supporting programme on current trends and the most important topics in the hospitality industry. The next Igeho will take place at Messe Basel from November 15 to 19, 2025.

www.igeho.ch

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